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CEBU CITY, Philippines – Local officials from the Cebu City Government still need to vaccinate more than 2,000 frontline medical healthcare workers before it can proceed to the next group of individuals qualified to receive free Covid-19 vaccines.
On Monday, April 5, 2021, an additional 105 healthcare workers in the city received their first dose of CoronaVac, the Covid-19 vaccine brand manufactured by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, Cebu City Health Officer, said Monday’s batch of health workers administered with Covid-19 vaccines were the recipients of the new 105 Sinovac doses the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) sent to the city government.
“All 105 Sinovac doses have already been consumed and administered as the first dose to our healthcare workers,” said Ibones in Cebuano.
Dr. Ilya Tac-an, City Health Department (CHD) Division head, also said that in Cebu City, there are over 6,000 frontline medical workers registered and qualified to get free vaccines from the city government.
“Of this 6,000 registered, we have vaccinated 3,000 plus so we still need to inoculate 2,000 more to complete our A1 group before we can proceed with the next subgroups,” said Tac-an in Cebuano.
The physician was referring to the vaccination priority list under the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for Covid-19 vaccines.
A1 refers to medical and healthcare workers at the frontlines of the battle against the pandemic. They are the government’s topmost priority in its Covid-19 vaccination drive.
Senior citizens, which experts believed to be highly vulnerable to the infection, are classified under A2 and are next in line to be inoculated for free.
In the meantime, Ibones said they are hopeful they will be able to complete the inoculation schedule for the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine for the 6,000 healthcare workers in the city.
“We are hoping that the additional supply of COVID-19 vaccines from DOH will be delivered to us within the week so we can finally wrap up with our A1, and begin with A2 and A3. A3 are persons with co-morbidities,” he added.
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/bmjo